Shibu Soren may return as Jharkhand chief minister with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha taking the first tentative steps towards forging a tie-up with the BJP. Along with the JD(U) and All Jharkhand Students? Union (AJSU), their numbers would add up to 43, one more than the half-way mark in the House of 81 MLAs.

The JMM chief has held talks with BJP MP and former chief minister Arjun Munda, justifying that in the post-election circumstances, no party could be dubbed communal. JMM vice-president Hemlal Murmu told The Indian Express that Soren would be staking claim ?very soon?.

While the JMM and BJP emerged as the single-largest parties in the fractured verdict, with 18 MLAs each, the JD(U) won from two seats while the AJSU has five MLAs.

Munda, who had played a key role once in bringing Soren to the NDA fold, is said to be in touch with his mentor and former BJP president Rajnath Singh, and the terms and conditions regarding the new coalition government are being worked out.

Munda admitted that many issues needed to be resolved yet, including a common minimum programme, but the BJP is confident of an amicable deal.

While BJP MP and former Union minister Yashwant Sinha and deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha Karia Munda are said to have been of the view that the mandate was not in favour of the BJP forming a government, they are not likely to make their objections public.

The JD(U) and AJSU are also not likely to oppose the arrangement with Soren. ?We will welcome it provided we are treated honourably,? said AJSU MLA and ex-minister Chandra Prakash Choudhary.

Within the JMM, a faction led by its two Muslim MLAs, Hazi Hussain Ansari and Akil Akhtar, is said to have opposed the tie-up with the BJP but desperate to become chief minister, Soren prevailed upon the party to go with him.

Asked how he was ready to do business with a party that he had himself described as ?communal? umpteen times, Soren said: ?Time has changed. It is wrong to say that the BJP is communal.?

Scared that power could be slipping from its hands, the Congress on Friday tried to warn Soren against any tie-up with the BJP. Congress MP and Union minister Subodh Kant Sahay said: ?He is a tall leader. We had made him CM twice. Now he should be above this post and allow secular forces to form the government.?

The Congress hopes that even if Soren does become chief minister, it is the Congress that will ultimately benefit from the consolidation of secular votes behind it in elections that follow.

4 yrs, 3 shots at CMship

If Shibu Soren does become Jharkhand CM, it will be for the third time in the past four and a half years. First time he took over with the backing of the Congress, RJD and Independents on March 4, 2005, only to quit after he could not prove majority on the floor of the House eight days later. The second time, he became CM with the backing of the same UPA partners on August 27, 2008, but had to resign following his defeat in the Tamar Assembly bypoll on January 10, 2008.